Service members are urged to be particularly vigilant when using the Internet, in the wake of recent reported incidents of “phishing,” the illegal practice of deceiving persons into divulging personal information such as passwords, credit card numbers, or Social Security numbers. According to U.S. Strategic Command, customers of USAA, the San Antonio-based insurance firm that focuses on military clients, the Navy Federal Credit Union have been subjected to a wave of e-mail communications from would be phishers. The e-mails “ask recipients to provide or verify personal information such as name and rank, account numbers, date of birth, mother’s maiden name, address and phone numbers, online account user name and password, credit card numbers, personal identification numbers for automated tellers, and Social Security numbers,” according to Armed Forces News Service. People should be very leery of such solicitations, STRATCOM warns. It is never a good idea to reveal passwords or personal identification numbers of any kind over the telephone or Internet. Also, avoid clicking on suspicious-looking e-mail attachments, and bear in mind that official sites generally contain “https” in their Web addresses, indicating that they are secure connections.